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Aston Martin should consider ditching Lance Stroll if his F1 performances don’t improve, even though he is the son of the team’s billionaire owner. That’s the view of former world champion Nico Rosberg who believes that the 24-year-old’s form has cost the Silverstone-based team second place in this year’s constructors championship.
Aston Martin is currently fourth in the standings, but a whopping 402 points behind newly-crowned champions Red Bull and 84 points adrift of second-placed Mercedes.
Veteran driver Fernando Alonso has enjoyed a productive season, with the former double world champion racking up 174 points, placing the Spaniard fourth in the standings. But it is a different story altogether for his teammate Stroll who is currently wallowing in 10th with just 47 points to his name.
While Alonso finished eighth on their last outing at the Japanese Grand Prix, Stroll failed to finish, ensuring that he once again left empty-handed.
Speaking to Sky Sports, 2016 champion Rosberg insisted that Aston Martin’s billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll faced a difficult decision over what to do about his son next season if the team is to set about reaching its lofty ambitions.
Rosberg said: “Of course, it’s fundamental, and I’m not really sure what’s happened to Lance Stroll there because he’s a very decent driver. He showed in the beginning of the season how he can stay close to Fernando. When Fernando’s third, Lance was fifth or sixth.
“So I’m not really sure what’s happened to him there but he’s really in a difficult phase now.”
Lance Stroll has not managed a podium placing all season but did clock up four top-seven finishes in his first six races this season. But despite finishing sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix in June, Stroll has fared no better than ninth in any race since then, leading Rosberg to believe that Aston Martin has become a one-driver team.
Rosberg added: “I think long-term for Aston, they can’t really allow themselves to have one driver who’s that far off. So either Lance gets back to where he can be and where he should be, or they’re gonna have to start thinking about changing, changing things around there with a second driver.
“Fernando needs to be pushed. The set-up work is much better when there are two drivers who are on it, it has a whole different dynamic. So it’s very important to have two drivers who are very quick.”
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Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack has previously denied that the outfit is looking for a potential replacement for Stroll next season, insisting that he will be staying with the team, but if he fails to at least close the gap on Alonso, Rosberg has suggested that the driver himself might decide to call it a day.
“It’s impossible for me to judge,” he said about a possible axing of Stroll.
“Probably it would more be Lance saying ‘Hey, you know what? I think I should go and do something else’ if he continues to struggle the way he is at the moment?
“It’s a really difficult situation to judge from the outside. I think the easiest would be if Lance Stroll finds a way back to where he has been and where he can be, which is not too far from Fernando.”
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